Oklahoma Has Been 'Good Enough' in 2024, but Patty Gasso is Looking for Major Improvement
NORMAN — Oklahoma has played good, not great in 2024.
The top-ranked Sooners are a perfect 9-0, still on a NCAA-record 62-game winning streak.
They’ve notched four run-rule victories, and taken out Duke and Washington — who are ranked No. 8 and No. 4 in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Coaches Poll, respectively.
But by head coach Patty Gasso’s own admission, OU is just scratching the surface.
“I thought this last weekend we were good enough to win,” Gasso said on Tuesday, fresh off Oklahoma’s 5-0 weekend at McNeese State’s Cowgirl Challenge. “We were more average than above average or even exceptional and we got away with it.”
The Sooners’ pitching staff allowed just one run all weekend, but OU’s hitters left 10 runners stranded on base in Saturday’s 3-0 victory over McNeese State.
Oklahoma also left 10 runners on base each in the wins over Duke and Washington in the opening weekend in Puerto Vallarta.
“Our defense was really good this (past) weekend,” Gasso said. “I don't think we made any errors. Pitching is on point, and the hitting is going to be catching up very quickly."
The process to get the entire team firing on all cylinders will require Gasso to look into the past and revert back to her old ways.
“Our team, we had this discussion, that our goal is to amp up practice and demand better at practice because it's showing in games and that is not what we want,” Gasso said. “The pressure is kind of on me to make sure that I am paying attention to these things, stopping, calling them out, do it over again, hustle, athletic movements, athletic hustle.”
Part of the slow start can be chalked up to early-season jitters.
By her own admission, transfer pitcher Kelly Maxwell said she was nervous in her Oklahoma debut against Duke, but settled in nicely.
Similarly, Gasso said she felt sophomore pitcher Kierston Deal worked through nerves in Puerto Vallarta, and she responded with a 10-strikeout performance on Saturday against Lamar.
But it also seems Gasso is still searching for the right buttons to press.
A year ago, Oklahoma equaled a feat that hadn’t happened in college softball in over three decades — winning back-to-back-to-back national titles.
To make history again and close out June by raising another trophy at the Women’s College World Series, the Sooners will have to do something no program has ever done at the top level of college softball.
“This is uncharted territory,” Gasso said. “I don't even know what to tell you how to manage them differently because it's a challenge. It's like how do I keep it fun and keep them hungry? You know, they've got three rings on their finger. What else more do you want?
“And that is what we have to keep our focus on, is not so much the outcome but creating a team that is loving the process. Loving each other. Loving, committing to what we're doing every day. And I think we've been a little sloppy. And I blame that on me. I blame that on me. I'm sitting back and I'm watching. (Tuesday at practice) I was much more vocal. And it felt good. The old me is a little bit different. They experienced the old me for one of the first times this season.”
Gasso built her program on hard work.
Before the home run records, the attendance records and the constant chase to make history, Oklahoma boasted a dominant left-hander and sprinkled a handful of clutch power hitters throughout a lineup full of speedy slap hitters.
The Sooners outworked the field, a feeling Gasso sensed when her team took on McNeese State in the tight 3-0 battle on Saturday night.
“McNeese just put on a clinic for us,” Gasso said. “One of the things that really changed me, to be honest, was their head coach really works his players hard. They're very prepared and their warmups would wow you. It's very organized, very regimented. It's almost military looking.
“They play hard and they may not have the same all-around level athlete that we have, but they outworked us, and I felt that.”
So as Oklahoma prepares to head back to the West Coast and headline the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, Gasso is intent on her Sooners embracing the work.
The season is long, and OU doesn’t want to play its best softball in February. But that doesn’t mean Gasso won’t be looking for improvements across the board to see a blue collar effort come first pitch against No. 25 Mississippi State on Friday.
“I think (McNeese State) outdid us in that way,” Gasso said. “… As much as we were very average this weekend and good enough to win, again, if we walk out of there with lessons, that's really important. And that's probably one of the most important lessons we learned."
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